NICK FRAME’S LIGHT BITES: Town centre bakery shop disappoints

HAVING to queue in Geoff Webster bakery shop, there’s clearly a solid fan base for the family-run business on Church Street.

With tough high-street competition from the likes of Greggs, independents are continually being put under threat.

Placed in the town centre, it’s clear that tradition means a lot to the owners, the homemade message is plastered all across the products’ price tags of “Our own make”, and the staff wear traditional aprons and hats, giving it that old-fashioned edge.

Like many bakers, sandwiches can be made to order but breaking the £3 barrier put me off, besides which, if you’re in a bakers, you should always go for the baked products. It’s like those who order curry in a pub then complain about it- if you want a curry, go to a quality Indian restaurant.

With around a dozen or so pies and pasties to choose from, I went for the chunky steak pie for £1.10, and a corned beef hash square (a corned beef and potato pie by any other name, I suppose), for £1.

But all the traditional talk can go hang if the food fails the taste test, which it sadly did.

The steak pie was disappointing. The pastry was stodgy and the filling a little dry but for a “small” pie, it was pretty hefty and die-hard pie fans would appreciate it, I’m sure.

As for the square, it fared slightly better- the pastry was lighter and therefore tastier. However, even that was let down by too much potato and not enough corned beef, and could have been mixed more to make it genuine corned beef hash.

However, my biggest bugbear was the deep smell of detergent throughout the shop which somehow seemed to permeate the food and did nothing to make it more appealing, it has to be said.

On the flipside, there’s an argument that you could say the place is clean, but that doesn’t mean I want my food to taste of it.

For quantity, you can’t argue, but I think next time I’d maybe opt for a sarnie. Then again, there are plenty of sandwich shops to choose from in the town centre.